By: Rachel Haaland Watson, Senior Director of Marketing and Client Intelligence at Akin and Jill Zwetchkenbaum, Associate Director, Business Growth & Client Solutions, Goulston & Storrs
For years, law firms have talked about “knowing their clients.” But in today’s competitive, data-saturated market, knowing isn’t enough. The firms leading growth are transforming raw data into relationship intelligence — connecting systems, signals, and stories to drive smarter pursuits, cross-selling initiatives, and client engagements.
As a business development leader, you don’t need more dashboards or data fields. You need a unified view of clients, contacts, markets, and opportunities that helps your team act faster and more effectively.
To get there, firms must understand not only the types of data they rely on, but also the structures that determine how that data can be captured, connected, and activated.
Modern law firm data falls into four broad categories: structured data, semi-structured data, unstructured data and derived data & metadata — each critical for growth, analytics, and AI enablement.
Organized, defined, and easily searchable: structured data fits neatly into tables and fields.
Examples: Client names, matter numbers, billing data, contact titles, practice codes.
Sources: CRM, finance systems, experience databases.
Use: Ideal for dashboards, analytics, and reporting.
In BD terms: structured data powers visibility - the backbone of every pipeline, client list, and report.
Some structure, but more flexible: information with tags or identifiers but no rigid schema.
Examples: Emails, event logs, web form submissions, JSON feeds from intent platforms.
Sources: Marketing automation tools (Marketo, Demandbase), website analytics, Data Cloud connectors.
Use: Enables AI and automation by connecting disparate systems through metadata and APIs.
In BD terms: semi-structured data powers connection - helping you link activity, engagement, and relationship data across platforms.
Free-form and often text- or media-heavy: unstructured data includes the majority of a law firm’s information.
Examples: Client alerts, pitch decks, transcripts, matter summaries, news articles, press releases.
Sources: SharePoint, email archives, CMS, media monitoring tools.
Use: Requires AI, NLP (Natural Language Processing), or search enrichment to extract insights.
In BD terms: unstructured data powers insight - it’s where context, language, and narrative live.
Information about information — derived from analysis or describing other data.
Examples: Engagement scores, sentiment ratings, taxonomy tags, data freshness indicators.
Sources: Analytics platforms, AI enrichment engines, data governance tools.
Use: Powers automation, quality monitoring, and predictive modeling.
In BD terms: derived data powers intelligence — turning raw inputs into direction and action.
In the end, it’s not just about collecting data, it’s also about connecting it. When law firms build a framework that transforms information into intelligence, they empower their business development teams to move with precision, purpose, and speed. The firms that succeed won’t just know their clients — they’ll understand them deeply, act on that understanding, and grow stronger relationships as a result. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we’ll delve deeper into how firms can operationalize this intelligence — turning strategy into action and insight into measurable impact.